Plot Summary: Kiss of Deception, Chapter 9
Lia begins to grow comfortable at the inn, happy to be serving tables and reveling in Berdi’s trust in her. She enjoys the simplicity of life at the inn, away from the confines of court life. Lia notices Enzo behaving a little strangely towards her (he has just been paid for information about her.) Pauline warns Lia soldiers are inside the inn, and asks her to stay put. She scoffs at the idea that anyone would recognize her in her new life and refuses. At the soldier’s table, Lia briefly fears she has been recognized after all – until one makes a pass at her. She sets him right, spilling brew into his lap and pretending to apologize for her clumsiness. Lia notices Pauline looking sallow and wonders if people can really be lovesick. She prays the next guest through the door will be Mikhail. Then she hears that phrase again, “''In the farthest corner''…”, imagining it to be a remembrance, just as two strangers enter the inn. Lia watches as the new arrivals scan the room, and ignore the sole empty table. Their gazes briefly stop at Pauline, whose back is to them. Gwyneth muses that the strangers might be a morose fisherman (Rafe) and a swaggering pelt-trader (Kaden). Unlike Gwyneth, Lia believes there is more to them – that they have other business here. The fisherman seems calculating to her, as well as bold and confident – if unkempt. The trader seems brooding, and in search of something. They finally sit, both more interested in the goings-on at the tavern than each other. Gwyneth accuses Lia of being “all lathered up” by how handsome they are, lamenting they are too young for her, but just right for Lia. Lia begins to approach them with two mugs of cider when she notices Pauline being harassed by the same soldier she set down earlier, and intervenes with a regal tone. Rafe and Kaden witness the encounter and are staring at Lia, who makes her way toward them with ciders, but stumbles when she notices the intensity of their gazes – she imagines they are angry or startled. She welcomes them, and offers them cider as they continue to stare. The pelt-trader smiles and thanks her, as Lia tries to place his accent – is it Islandese? He insists she is wrong awkwardly, and she does not press him since he seems agitated. She thinks the fisherman smug do to his scrutiny of her, which she imagines is due to her earlier treatment of the soldier. Once he speaks, his voice unsettles her as deeply familiar, and she knows she has heard it before, even if not out loud. It knocks the wind out of her. Nervously, she explains Gwen’s game of guessing their trades in order to cover her anxiety. The pelt-trader introduces himself as Kaden, and Lia responds with her own name. She then presses the fisherman, who eventually tells her his name is Rafe. Something about Rafe’s name and striking face make her blush. Rafe and Kaden note that Pauline seems young to work here – Lia retorts that they are both seventeen, though Pauline is more innocent than she. Rafe suggestively banters, and Lia essentially calls him rude. Even as they banter, Lia finds his grin disarming and forgets her words. Kaden stares at his mug, thinking. Lia plans to serve Rafe the toughest venison she can find to wipe the smug grin off his face. Gwyneth interrupts the tete-a-tete, calling Lia to the kitchen. Once there, Berdi admonishes Lia for drawing attention to herself with the soldiers and confines her to back of house for the night. Lia laments that she’ll never know if they really were a fisherman and a trader, assuming they have both left for good. She jealously imagines Gwyneth flirting with them as she overcooks onions.